This disclosure relates to updating expiry information of an account, and more specifically to updating expiry information of an account for use in card-on-file (COF) transactions.
COF transactions allow cardholders to make purchases without the presence of a physical payment card. More specifically, a COF transaction is a type of card-not-present (CNP) transaction in which a merchant stores information about the payment card and initiates a transaction using the stored payment card information. Card-on-file recurring payment (COF/RP) transactions, a subset of COF transactions, are initiated by a merchant on a repeated basis for a particular cardholder. This payment method is designed to relieve cardholders of remembering to initiate recurring transactions with a merchant. For example, a cardholder subscribes to an online video streaming service that requires a monthly payment to keep the cardholder's subscription valid. Rather than requiring the cardholder to affirmatively initiate a transaction each month or pay for multiple months in advance, the merchant associated with the online video streaming service charges the cardholder for the service on a monthly basis using COF/RP transactions.
In known systems, in order for a merchant to initiate a COF transaction, the merchant stores payment card information for a cardholder in a merchant database. In at least some known systems, a merchant accesses a database of payment card information at a payment network (a payment network database) and compares the payment card information stored in the merchant database with corresponding payment card information in the payment network database. If updated payment information is within the payment network database, the merchant will then update its own database to include the new payment information. One difficulty with such systems arises when an issuer fails to provide updated payment card information to the payment network database, for example when an account reissuance occurs (i.e., due to an account data compromise event, a lost or stolen payment card being replaced, or a payment card being reissued because the expiration date has passed). In such instances, merchants may be unable to update their databases to include the updated payment card information and COF transactions are declined due to expired payment card information.